Crews erecting mini-city on cow pasture

BAKER, La. — A freshly mowed cow pasture is bustling around the clock with construction crews erecting the first of several trailer-home cities for hundreds of thousands of Hurricane Katrina evacuees across Louisiana and Mississippi.

As airlifts end and shelters remain jammed, a grim, enduring reality is settling in throughout the areas closest to Katrina's epicenter. More than 300,000 displaced residents, mainly from New Orleans, will be housed in coming weeks in tiny trailers that Americans normally use for recreation and travel.

Unprecedented in its scope and magnitude, an effort is under way by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to rush 100,000 trailers into the region as the agency seeks to set up interim housing to deal with the challenge of moving the displaced out of crowded shelters.

Less jarring options

In most other states, even overwhelmed Texas, storm victims are being taken into houses and other makeshift buildings, a less jarring integration of the needy than erecting trailer enclaves.

But housing in the hardest-hit regions of the storm is so scarce and the sheer number of evacuees so great that officials say they have no choice but to create temporary cities--at least a half dozen to start--that may be occupied for as long as five years.

"People are begging us to get out of the shelters," said Baker Mayor Harold Rideau, whose town of 14,000 is already overwhelmed with nearly 3,000 victims in shelters, churches and homes.

"They see the trailers as a gift from God," said Rideau, who said he welcomes the trailer park being quickly erected on the outskirts of Baker even though it will change the town's quaint character.

Trailers have long been a temporary housing solution to America's disasters.

In Florida, more than 7,900 trailers were erected after several hurricanes walloped the state last year, and many remain occupied during rebuilding, with residents on government subsidies, state officials said.

But the scope of Katrina's displacement is so vast, and with as many as a million people scattered nationally, the proposed trailer cities are unique in modern American history.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, some 40,000 South Florida residents received federal assistance after being forced out of their damaged homes for months, even years. An additional 3,500 lived in federally issued trailers for up to three years, state officials said.

Now hundreds of trailers are arriving in the Baton Rouge area daily. New ones are being manufactured at breakneck speed. Ultimately, federal officials predict they will need 30 times as many trailers as were used after Andrew.

"It may not be on the scale of building the pyramids, but this is close," Brad Gair, FEMA's housing coordinator in the Katrina region, told the Baton Rouge Advocate this week. "It's a huge challenge."

A working-class and commuter town 5 miles outside Baton Rouge, Baker has not only embraced the trailers, it initiated requests for them. City officials said FEMA has signed leases to put trailers on vacant state land for 18 months at least.

Barely damaged during Katrina--save for downed arches at the McDonalds and some fallen trees--Baker opened its heart to refugees. At least five shelters operate full time and are teeming with displaced people eager for more permanent dwellings.

City officials hope that 550 to 600 trailers will be occupied, and the mini-city will be up and running within two weeks. Crews are working day and night over 60 acres to install services and utilities.

City leaders say they are still wrangling with federal and state officials over how financially strapped Baker will be reimbursed.

But even before the trailers are erected, Baker is feeling the aftershocks of the migration. It is tough to find groceries because markets are jammed.

Already some 400 children displaced by the hurricane have swamped the school system that had 2,200 students before Katrina. More than 400 additional children are likely to enroll in coming days, many with just the clothes on their backs.

Teachers hired

At least 35 new teachers--some of them living in shelters--have been hired for elementary and secondary schools. Both levels will need more classroom space.

"We're bulging at the seams with no more room," said Barbara Thomas Parker, who is coordinating homeless efforts for the city's school system.

Schools and city offices have seen a surge in requests from the displaced for the trailers, Parker said.

"I prefer anything rather than this," said Loucille Simmons, 56, who has been homeless for two weeks.

Simmons arrived in Baker on Sunday at a Red Cross shelter after spending a week with five children and five grandchildren in a relative's cramped apartment in Baton Rouge.

"It's a great idea for right now until we can find a permanent place," Simmons' daughter, Dawn, said of the trailers. Still, she wonders how she would travel to a new job, if she finds one.